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2000 Years Later
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1969 film
February 2026
2000 Years Later 2000 Years Later poster.jpg Theatrical release poster Bert Tenzer Bert Tenzer Bert Tenzer Terry-ThomasEdward Everett HortonPat Harrington, Jr.Lisa SeagramJohn AbbottJohn Myhers Stu Phillips Mario DiLeo Donn Cambern Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Warner Bros.-Seven Arts 1969 3 11 80 minutes United States English
2000 Years Later (also known as Two Thousand Years Later 2000 Years Later https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150302753 24 January 2026 British Film Institute Collections Search) is a 1969 American comedy film written and directed by Bert Tenzer and starring Terry-Thomas, Edward Everett Horton, Pat Harrington, Jr., Lisa Seagram, John Abbott and John Myhers. It was released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on March 11, 1969.2000 Years Later https://catalog.afi.com/Film/18856-2000-YEARSLATER 24 January 2026 American Film Institute Cataloghttps://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94271/2000-years-later https://web.archive.org/web/20130301101857/http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94271/2000-Years-Later/ dead March 1, 2013 2000 Years Later (1969) - Overview Turner Classic Movies 1969-03-11 2015-12-08
Plot
A satire on American pop culture and its obsession with fads, 2000 Years Later imagines what might happen if the latest craze sweeping the U.S. was a return to Ancient Roman values.
The idea reaches the public as a tongue-in-cheek gimmick on a late-night television program, The International Culture Hour, and quickly spirals into a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Soon, everyone—from long-haired pop stars to U.S. senators, from motorcycle gangs to Pentagon generals—is donning togas, reviving Roman customs, and participating in wild, Roman-style orgies at trendy nightclubs and private homes.
But a mysterious Roman general sent from the afterlife appears with a dire warning, determined to prevent history from repeating itself with a second fall of Rome...
Cast
Terry-Thomas as Goodwyn
Edward Everett Horton as Evermore
Pat Harrington, Jr. as Franchot
Lisa Seagram as Cindy
John Abbott as Gregorius
John Myhers as Air Force General
Tom Melody as Senator
Myrna Ross as Miss Forever
Monti Rock III as Tomorrow's Leader
Murray Roman as Superdude
Michael Christian as The Piston Kid
Casey Kasem as disk jockey
Bert Tenzer as Mercury's voice
Rudi Gernreich as himself
Critical response
The film was not widely reviewed, but the few reviews were negative.January 2026
Variety wrote: "Bert Tenzer's indie-made (in 1967) pic is already dated in its repetitious, papier-mache polemic. Full of razzle-dazzle editing and a concept that emerges as rather tasteless, pic looks like a home movie gone mad with pretensions of satiric social significance. The domestic R rating is both a testament to its crudity and a potential b.o hype. Terry-Thomas and Edward Everett Horton are of some value, but the heroes, if any, of this piece will be Warner Bros.-Seven Arts' drumbeaters."26 February 1969 2000 Years Later 254 2 30 964070807 Variety
Boxoffice wrote: "Bert Tenzer, writer-producer-director of Wb-Ta's 2000 Years Later, is a former maker of television commercials, and he brings to his first feature film all the quick-cut, don't-think-about-it aspects so common to TV sales pitches. Trying to make any real sense out of this cinema goulash would be a mistake, if not impossible, but audiences conditioned to the latest trends might well delight in the mad shenanigans detailed therein. ... If much of the production is amateurish and faintly reminiscent of an endless coming attraction, 2000 Years Later is still different enough to attract those looking for something far-out."3 March 1969 2000 Years Later 1476036383 Boxoffice 94 20 a11.
The Independent Film Journal wrote: "Unusual attempt to combine candid camera photograph techniques with satirical fantasy that doesn't come off. The end result is the feeling of having witnessed 80 minutes of psychedelic coming attractions. ...The performers seem to tackle their material with a near-desperate abandon, as if to compensate for the script's deficiencies. None has much of a chance to create a character or establish much of a genuine scene. Abbott's Roman has nothing to say and merely looks out of place, which would be all that is required of him under the circumstances. Horton is up to his old fuss-budget tricks, and Terry-Thomas does his usual 'thing'."4 Mar 1969 2000 Years Later https://www.proquest.com/docview/1505951414 The Independent Film Journal 63 7 964–965. ProQuest
Howard Thompson of The New York Times opined: "This extremely overcooked satire, which was written, directed and produced by Bert Tenzer, coyly hurls itself at the viewer in a tiresome stream of jump-cut vignettes and brief film clips. ...The whole thing is apparently intended to prove what fools we modern mortals be. We'll buy that, but not Mr. Tenzer's frenzied 80-minute format. ... It doesn't work. The picture simply isn't funny. Pat Harrington, Lisa Seagram, John Myhers, Tom Melody and the others strive valiantly for laughs. It's a juiceless state of affairs indeed, when two experts like Mr. Thomas and Mr. Horton can't pump in some genuine fun."Howard Thompson. https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C03E1DE153AEE34BC4A52DFB5668382679EDE Movie Review - 2000 Years Later - ' 2000 Years Later' Brings Ancient Roman Into Television Age NYTimes.com 1969-03-12 2015-12-08
References
External links
0063972
Category:1969 films
Category:1969 English-language films
Category:American comedy films
Category:1969 comedy films
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:Films scored by Stu Phillips
Category:1969 American films
Category:English-language comedy films